30 Fighting Days Left For Ukraine’s Offensive – Says US Army Chief
According to the senior US military officer, Ukraine has less than 30 days of fighting left before the weather makes it difficult for it to launch a counteroffensive.
Colder weather will make it much tougher for Ukraine to manoeuvre, Gen. Mark Milley said in an interview with the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show.
He acknowledged that the offensive had progressed slower than anticipated. However, he added: “There is still fierce fighting, and the Ukrainians continue to make steady progress.”
Although Ukraine was “progressing at a very steady pace through the Russian front lines,” General Milley said it was too soon to judge whether the counteroffensive had been successful.
There’s still a reasonable amount of time, probably about 30 to 45 days’ worth of fighting weather left, so the Ukrainians aren’t done.
“There’s battles not done… they haven’t finished the fighting part of what they’re trying to accomplish.”
Kyiv’s counter-offensive, which was launched in the summer and aims to liberate Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine, has so far seen only small gains.
I said at the very beginning of this [war] that this was going to be long, slow, hard, and high-casualty-producing, and that’s exactly what it is,” Gen Milley said.
In the same interview, Adm Sir Tony Radakin, the UK chief of defence staff, said “Ukraine is winning and Russia is losing”.
“That is because the aim of Russia was to subjugate Ukraine and to put it under Russia’s control”, he said.
“That has not happened and it never will happen, and that’s why Ukraine is winning.”
He added that Ukraine was making progress in its battle to regain its territory, having recovered 50% of the ground Russia seized.
Ukraine’s progress was also down to the international community “applying economic pressure and diplomatic pressure, and Russia is suffering because of that”, he said.